Is the Federation of State Medical Boards Behind the Brutal Attacks on Integrative Medicine Practitioners?

The FSMB is an elite, highly influential, secretive private organization. We also believe that it is thoroughly corrupt. Action Alert!

Each of the fifty states, as well as the District of Columbia and the US territories, has laws that define the practice of medicine; each one delegates the authority to enforce those laws to a state medical board. State medical boards also adopt policies and create guidelines related to the practice of medicine. They have the power to revoke physician licenses for violating the state’s laws of the practice of medicine—subject to the boards’ interpretation of the law, which can be highly arbitrary.

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) is a private 501(c)(6) trade association that purports to represent the seventy state medical and osteopathic boards of the US and its territories, and cosponsors the United States Medical Licensing Examination. It is tremendously powerful: whatever it suggests in terms of medical care policies are often adopted by the state medical boards. A private trade association with no public funding, transparency, or accountability arguably has the power to interpret state medical law and grant or revoke medical licenses! Ever wonder why it’s so hard to find a doctor who will prescribe bioidentical hormones or administer chelation therapy? We believe it’s because the FSMB has made it such a career risk for the doctor to use his own independent judgment.

So far as we can tell, it seems that the FSMB was infiltrated in the late 1990s by the so-called “quackbuster” contingent—people openly hostile to complementary and alternative medicine. At the 1996 annual meeting of the FSMB in Chicago, there was a radical shift from a focus on health fraud as defined by the federal government (overbilling, un-bundling, and kickbacks) to another definition of health fraud: alternative medical care. It seems a concerted effort to label innovation in health care—and especially any natural treatment that competes with an emphasis on drugs and surgery as the ideal for modern medicine—as mere “quackery.” (In fact, at just one session of that meeting, Dr. William Fleming—a member of the FSMB’s board of directors, and chair of its Ad Hoc Committee on Health Care Fraud—used the word “quack” or “quackery” 139 times.)

Since then, the FSMB has challenged integrative medicine as being outside the “standard of care,” defining the term to suit its own purposes; in this, the organization mirrors and amplifies the American Medical Association’s antipathy toward integrative medicine. Because practicing outside the standard of care is grounds for a state medical board to revoke a doctor’s license, the attempt to exclude CAM therapies from the standard of care is a major threat to consumers’ access to integrative doctors. For years we have seen integrative doctors being harassed and charged by their state medical boards for practicing outside this bogus standard of care when what they have really done is posed a competitive threat to conventional medicine, at a time when conventional medicine is doing a great deal of harm and really needs competition. You may also recall our story last month in which the FSMB participated in a biased anti-chelation event, attempting to define chelation therapy as health fraud.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today recentlyreported that the FSMB asked for $100,000 from Big Pharma to help create and distribute the organization’s new policy on pain medication to their 700,000 practicing doctors. The federation won’t say how much money it received from industry, but estimated that it will cost $3.1 million for its campaign.

And what is this campaign? To get the word out about “safe” use of opioid analgesics in the treatment of chronic pain! That’s right, FSMB’s new policy favors the use of opioids for long-term pain management, despite an epidemic of painkiller abuse and addiction (not to mention the terrible crime rates that accompany it)—and a lack of scientific support for this use of the drugs.

If you think drug manufacturers might be pleased to contribute to such a campaign, you would be right. The University of Wisconsin, with funding from Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, developed a continuing education course for doctors based on the FSMB’s manual. This is the drug company that in 2007 paid $600 million in fines in settlement of a guilty plea for having misled doctors and patients when it claimed that the drug was less likely to be abused than traditional narcotics.

So if we used to be puzzled about the FSMB’s motives in attacking integrative medicine, this latest move has made it clear that a good part of it may just be about the money.

Last Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee launched an investigation into the close ties between pharmaceutical companies, the FSMB, and “nonprofit pain groups” like the American Pain Foundation. The Foundation received 90 percent of its $5 million in funding in 2010 from the drug and medical device industry, and its guides for patients, journalists, and policymakers downplay the risks associated with opioid painkillers while exaggerating the benefits from the drugs.

Tuesday morning, two senators from the Finance Committee sent letters to the American Pain Foundation and four other pain nonprofits, three drug companies, and the FSMB, expressing concern about their relationship with each other. Tuesday evening, the Foundation announced that it would “cease to exist, effective immediately.” Coincidence?

The senators also asked about any influence the drug companies had on a 2004 guide for doctors about pain that was distributed by the FSMB, based on guidelines by the American Pain Society and on the American Pain Foundation’s Military/Veterans Pain Initiative.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that opioids were involved in 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008, more than cocaine and heroin combined. So much for “safe use.”

How much money does the FSMB take in total from industry? How does it use it? Who really runs the FSMB? What exactly is its relationship with the American Medical Association? With the so-called Quackbusters? With state medical boards? These are all questions that need answers. In the meantime, ANH-USA will continue to monitor the state medical boards that seem to have been heavily influenced and turned against natural medicine by this rogue organization.

Action Alert! Contact your local state medical board and demand information about its relationship with the FSMB! We have drafted a suggested letter and talking points. Please take action today!

Guys, I think the form letter provided in the Action Alert in regards to the Federation of State Medical Boards has a mistake in it.

The letter opens that one was ” disturbed” to know that an investigation has been initiated. Wouldn’t people like us be “ecstatic”?

Grace

Money lust changes even the most honorable people into monsters. This unfortunate situation would not surprise me at all.

blue heron

Sure, just follow the money.

It is estimated that up to 1/3 of all Americans have leaky gut syndrome, most caused by hidden or silent food allergies. That accounts to more than 90 million people hardly ever being properly diagnosed much less treated well by standard medicine. Instead, they are being given drugs to control their symptoms. Something like 97% of people affected are never diagnosed during their lifetimes.

As most standard medical doctors are not taught nutrition in med school, they are not the right people to handle ailments stemming from food sensitivities. They are not even looking for these conditions.

Who else is willing to play “follow the clue” with these myriad presentations caused by hidden allergies and sensitivities?

Jack Lazarus

“I was disturbed to read that the Senate Finance Committee has launched an investigation into the close financial ties between pharmaceutical companies, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), and nonprofit pain groups.”

Are we disturbed or heartened by the investigation?
It’s not clear to me that this was posed correctly.

Bruce Dooley, M.D.

Kudos!
I am so glad you finally came out with this article after my email discussions with your staff writer. This private organization, formed in 1912, a very curious time regarding the formation of the Federal Reserve (a private bank consortium), John Rockefeller investing in the fledgling pharmaceutical industry, and the Flexner report wiping out homeopathy. My report on my investigation into this shadow organization to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2000 is found at this site http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/whccamp/meetings/transcript_12_4_00.html
This is indeed the “beast” at the heart of repressing any therapies and physicians that promote health and these non-patenable, proven nutraceutical therapies. I sat in astonishment at two of the FSMB annual meetings (in posh settings) where “delagates” from each state VOTED on electronic ballet machines on various proposals submitted by the FSMB. I thought to myself “hmmm. this is a private organization, how can a LAW be created?” Well, then the states medical boards were given a copy of this new “law” to take and incorporate into their state. Very clever method to control doctors by threatening their means of a livelihood…their license to practice medicine. Most doctors have NEVER even heard of the FSMB. Hence they are “shadow masters” controlling behind the scenes with a massive staff over 200 employess in Euliss, TX. Here’s the final irony, they OWN and write the National Medical Boards and also own the Physician Disciplinary Data Bank in which, if a doctor is disciplined by their state medical board, an unexpungable (forever) black mark is set agaist them and if they apply to another state for a license, it is brought up and they are likely refused a license to practice in that state. So how does an organization with two huge double storied buildings (Google Earth this address: 400 Fuller Wiser Road, Suite 300
Euless, TX 76039) maintain a full-time staff which includes doctors and lawyers exist on annual membership dues of $10,000/year from each state medical board? Well, as a private organization they do not have to reveal their finances. But if all the physicians that have been attacked by their medical boards formed an alliance with a class-action law firm and filed such a suit, then under “discovery” we’d surely see that they are supported from…well…stay tuned…or can you just guess?! From New Zealand

Bruce Dooley, M.D.

One more important “aside” comment. The “mandate” of our state medical boards is to protect the public from HARM. At one of these velvet-roped “votes” they changed the definition of harm from that of physical harm (which almost never occurs in CAM) to include harm created if one did not seek conventional care and also FINANCIAL harm if you paid monies for CAM care and were not helped.

coalmine canary

Good lord! Did they actually “X” out the definition of physical harm? Can you please clarify? Thanks.

How awful to legislate CAM as doing harm, financially or in any other sneaky, back-door (and ridiculous) way! What control maniac action this is. It seems to me that only in Red China does one have to apply for government permission to see a doctor of one’s choice, or not to….or to practice a certain profession, or not to…..apparently, the USA is dictating our professions now, under cover.

Time for the people to wake up!

Bruce Dooley, M.D.

I am not sure what you mean by “X” out. They broadened the definition of harm to include not only physical harm to patients (which of course is a noble objective for a government body to do), but to mean harm could also be financial or indirect ie. if you elected to do a CAM treatment instead of a conventional treatment and got sicker or died, then it was the fault of the CAM treatment.

coalmine canary

It seems to me that to have a government board “interpret” the law,and affect practicing of Any Profession based thereon, is fundamentally unconstitutional.

Judges were set up by our founding fathers as a fundamental arm of government, to put a check and balance system on government power run amok. Jurors, as citizens, are also there to put a check and balance system on the judges themselves, as well as the government system.

Why don’t Americans understand this fundamental truth? Right there, just by setting up such a unilateral decision-making body in the government, with power over peoples’ wellbeing and livelihood, is unconstitutional. Don’t we get it? Why do we support this with our tax dollars, and our collective silence?

Thank you ANH for what you are doing.

We readers need to help spread word widely and get many, many more petition signers on board with the ANH.

To restore the system of checks and balances and our constitutional freedom, I ask one question:

Are YOU willing and able to run for public office? We need to replace about 90% of Congress if we want even one shred of hope for our freedom. To run for public office is legal, non-violetn, gets issues out to the public, challenges congressional seats and diverts votes. I hope numerous people will step forward. Moveon.org is helping with funding. If I was in any position to do this myself, I would. Can you? Thank you for being part of the solution.

Kendal Rice

I guess you people have never had 12 operations in your life or suffered greatly. Any of you disabled? Didn’t think so.

I’ll read your rag no more.

henry balfour

@ Kendal Rice.
I’m struggling to understand what point you are trying to make here … Are you saying that until one has suffered surgery multiple times, and/or become disabled (as a result of multiple surgeries, maybe ?) one cannot comment or debate on the corporate control over public medicine ? Is this what you are trying to say ? I would like you to re-submit your comment in clearer terms, if you are able to do this.

Bruce Stewart

Like Henry I’m not sure what you are saying. I’m 63 an have never had an operation but I still understand a little about the “system”. My first exposure was when my mother-in-law, who is 93, had pneumonia and had two rounds of antibiotics that nearly killed her. That was the “safe medicine” that does no harm. A relative said she needs an IV of H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide). I thought they were nuts! She was going to die of pneumonia anyway so we were talked into it. An hour after the treatment she went shopping at the mall! Believe me I’m a firm believer in CAM now.

ANH isn’t saying anything against you or your treatments they are saying give the rest of us a break. I want chelation, leave me ALONE! I want H2O2, leave me ALONE! I want acupuncture, etc, etc, etc.

Ann Stockdale

If we as a nation are truely into Freedom, We must stop the assault on Natural Healing.

coalmine canary

“First, do no harm”.

This is an oath that doctors have to swear to.

Well, it seems to me that “doctors” who tout the monopoly of prescriptions with drugs that cause “side effects” like tumors (Bactrim, an antibiotic), leukemia (radioactive iodine), and more….are indeed doing harm and are, quite frankly, themselves the quacks. Think about it.

To look up drug side effects for yourself, go to http://www.drugs.com or look on the pharmacy’s own handouts. Don’t be surprised that the latter use technical language to disguise their “disclosures”. If you want layman’s English, go to drugs.com.

you can also go to the US Government’s own medical database and look up studies, here:

I’M 68; CARPAL TUNNEL; CAnT GO BACK AND FORTH BECAUSE OF ARTHRITIS IN HANDS; SO SHOUTING IS JUST THAT VERBAL. HOW STUPID CAn YUOU GET. SORRY ABOUT MISSPELL WORDS; ARTHRITIS; CARPAL TUNNEL; TYOPE 3 WORDS PER MIN. SORRY I SHOUTED ; HOW STUPID CAN PEOPLE GET. STUPID

Bruce

There are many alternatives to the high powered opiates but they are easy. Write a prescription and send you on your way. Next! Acupuncture by the person can do wonders. The Russians developed a device called SCENAR an American variation of that is Avazzia. I’ve used them, they work. They are FDA approved for pain management. Did your doctor tell you about it? No, I’m sure he didn’t. It’s FDA approved so it can’t be quack medicine. It’s a big step up from the TENS units.

There are utube videos on the use of the Avazzia for carpal tunnel pain. It doesn’t just relive the pain, it lessens the inflammation that causes the problem in the first place. But it would take more than a 10 minute office visit and a quick prescription so you’ll have to look long and hard to find a doctor that can give you a treatment. That is if there are any that haven’t lost their licenses because “they don’t go along”.

Michele FitzGerald

Re: “quackbuster” contingent. 🙂 The medical society forgets its roots. Highly-educated and overly-paid physicians today are the result of abandonment of health care. In not so distant past doctors were not licensed and were instead “jacks of all trades, masters of none” with nothing but religion and a dose of technology to earn a living. They used herbs as medicine. They believed spirits could be bled from the body. They put leaches on human bodies to suck blood. They dug up gravesites to perform illegal autopsies to learn about the body human. This and more falls within the historical context of American medical history that defines western medicine. The “genealogical” root of American medicine traces back to the original “quack”, the American doctor. Then as now there will always be more than one culture, one society, one industry, one market to manage health care to a global population. “Quack” is their term for western medicine, not for health care that has lasted centuries and throughout written history. What we see in the political and economic arena regarding western medicine is a struggle to survive. They have lost spirit and medicine cannot be practices without it.

Michele FitzGerald

Here’s the thing about a 501(c) (6) organization: it is exempt from federal tax. It order to sustain that designation it must first keep its purpose as a league, to promote a common business interest and in this case only in the practice of medicine. It can lobby and campaign to further its activities and can’t use member due to do it. Here is an example of what the IRS says a 501(c)(6) cannot do: “Furnishing particular information and specialized individual services to members through publishing and other means to effect economies in business operations may be performing particular services; but educating members on how to improve their business results is not.” The FSMB may have overstepped its bounds if it can be interpreted its purpose is “to effect economies in business operations”. Another thing the league cannot do according to the IRS is : “Advertising that carries the names of members may be performing particular services; but promoting the business of an industry by encouraging the use of its products is not.”
It appears by the article above FSMB may have overstepped its bounds by “promoting the business of an industry by encouraging the use of its products” such as in the drug industry. Only a CPA, IRS or auditor may be helpful to answer the question.If you really want to get to the core or pull the rug out underneath the FSMB go after their 501(c) (6) status. The IRS is always looking for ways to increase taxes…and the IRS is the first to tell you “non-profit organizations” are the most profitable organizations in the country.

I can not in good conscience agree with your objectives in this case- I’m usually right with you, but not this time. Those of us who know about the FDA’s audacious and idiotic plan to keep people off of pain killers by introducing life-threatening chemicals into them would agree. Believe it or not:

Opiod drugs without the attendant “additives” are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, particularly to people in chronic, intractable pain. A patient with a bad back is routinely prescribed 5 mg Hydrocodone/500 Acetiminophen, or 7.5 Hydrocodone/725 Acetiminophen. The Hydrocodone is the effective ingredient. The Acetiminophen can cause severe liver damage and death in a relatively short time. The Acetiminophen has comparatively no analgesic qualities.

In Europe, one can buy codeine OTC. Here in the US, we like our poor to suffer and die. Please investigate this issue further. Please Google the connection between heating pads and squamous cell carcinoma through the infliction of Erythema Ab Igne. Most doctors don’t even know what that is.

You state, “And what is this campaign? To get the word out about “safe” use of opioid analgesics in the treatment of chronic pain! That’s right, FSMB’s new policy favors the use of opioids for long-term pain management, despite an epidemic of painkiller abuse and addiction (not to mention the terrible crime rates that accompany it)—and a lack of scientific support for this use of the drugs.”

I am an intern and a musician (the trained kind, not one of those druggies that play jazz like the great Miles Davis- sarcasm). To anyone in fierce, lifelong, unremitting pain, your position is worse than a decree of death. Also, I have not committed any terrible crimes this week…

Jessica, we certainly don’t mean to imply that there are absolutely no legitimate uses of opioid drugs, or that all users are criminals. We are simply concerned that the FSMB’s policy is encouraging overprescription of the drugs in situations where they will do more harm than good, and make it harder for state boards to crack down on “pill mill” doctors who are writing too many prescriptions with proper cause, worsening the problems with what is currently the #1 drug of abuse in our country.

Joyce Panyard

I empathize with your situation, but take offense to the oversimplification that all un-trained musicians are “druggies”. That is very narrow minded indeed.

SL Molnar

Mike Adams/Natural News reported fairly recently (though I cannot locate the link) that the government had just approved the manufacture of an extremely large amount of painkilling drugs. Seems they’re trying to create a market for them.

Tim Webb

Medicine is a cartel-owned and promoted racket of vested interest. It is directly comparable to the mafia, where you are threatened and run out of town if you pose a threat to the hegemony of the local mob. As the MD says, this all began with Rockefeller, wishing to use petrochemical technology to take over the market with synthetic and therefore patentable drugs. And oil money talks. Or rather, it swears, as someone once said. Dylan I think. In the UK there is the Cancer Act of 1939 which under the guise of protecting the safety of the public, outlawed all medical cancer advice and treatment that did not involve the cut burn poison paradigm. There are so called charities fleecing the gullible public to pay for cancer research, which is then sold back to them at unaffordable prices. Nowhere are they told that we already know that vitamin D, selenium, curcumin, green tea, hemp oil, tocotrienol variants of natural vitamin E, i/v vitamin C, etc, are highly effective against cancers of all persuasions. Looking at the list tells you why. They are all natural substances which cannot be patented.
The love of money is the root of all evil, as Paul said to Timothy, 2000 years ago.

brad roon

Oxygen. Dr Otto Warburg basically proved that all cancers take place in low oxygen environments and are somewhat of a fermentation process since the lack of oxygen in the cell forces cells to utilize carbohydrates to survive. When they do so, the DNA/RNA does not get replicated in the ADP/ATP cycle of the mitochondria. No genetic shut-off switch. The cells replicate like a one celled fungus or plant.

Sometimes large amounts of oxygen can actually return some of the cancer cells back to normal cells i’ve read. Not seen that but have seen ozone injections into potato like melanomas and seeing the tumor shrink, die, fall off, and leave a tiny scar after being the size of a small fist on the man’s cheekbone.

Kelli

Groups like FSMB that have been infiltrated by special interests and Big Pharma are causing the death and suffering of millions of people by keeping them in the dark about affective, alternative treatments.

David J Ogle MD

Dear readers,
I am such a physician that the above article describes. Out of exaggeration, distortion and fabrication, the OMB hatched a vindictive and vengeful action against essentially my CAIM practice over the past 10 years. This corrupt board created harm where none previously existed. I and my family have been grievously harmed by the abuse of the Oregon Medical Board such that I no longer have a livelihood with which to support my wife and 3 year old daughter. That is unless I can prevail in Federal Court. I have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court and need your support morally and financially in order to reverse the wrong done and seek redress under the U.S. Constitution. If you would like to help, contact me at [email protected] A reversal means more than just my victory over a corrupt governmental agency. It means establishment of a potential landmark case for all physicians and more! David J. Ogle, MD Gresham, Oregon

brad roon

Wish i were in a better way, Doc.

Since the rich parasites ruined the working economy (but not the investment economy) i have had to chase work over 4 states. About 1 and 1/2 years ago i had 13 bucks to my name after moving here. I’m still too tight to benefit others, but i feel for you and hope the best for you.

tess

Obviously none of you are chronic pain patients with very painful disorders that are not curable. Obviously none of you are disabled.

Patients are already treated like drug addicts when they go to a pain specialists due to the control mandated over pain physicians. Some of us legitimately need pain relief that cannot be offered in other ways. I have RSD and there is no way in hell I will go along with you on this.

Tess

Sai

Well said and to the point. I’m angry that this group is mixing up two entirely different set of people and attempting to justify one mode of treatment. This is the kind of hysteria I’d expect from Rush Limbaugh – one of those recreational drug user addicts. ANH, you disappoint me greatly.

Tinker

As with anything that has become miserably complex over the years, the medical field is rift with fraud and scams. There is a thin line between ethics and greed. Part of the problem is that the very oversight set up to control this often becomes corrupt. It has nothing to do with the actual practice of medicine. It has to do with the bureaucracy that keeps growing in inverse ratio to its ability to accomplish ethical goals, and the corporations whose members have put ethical and moral considerations far far behind profit and power.
The objective of getting medicine back on track … “First, do no harm” …. is not meant to prevent ethical and necessary procedures and treatments. If you or I need pain medication legitimately, we should have access to it, or to anything else that we choose that can help us. But how to sort out the scammers, the crooks, the multitudes with agendas that increase the complexity and cost of the practice of medicine.
At this point, about the only thing that works, if it does, is to expose the corruption and get a lot of people involved in solving the problem. That is what a forum such as this is for. Not to deny any of us legitimate aid. If it is doing that, it must be condemned as deeply as the mega-corporations and government agencies that are trying to own us. We need them to go back to their original objectives of helping us. Just passing a ton of laws and harassing everyone does not solve the problem. It just creates confusion and ill will. I have an excellent Murphy’s Law to share that applies very well to this problem. “When you are up to your rear in alligators, it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp.”

Jusi

Tess-
This issue is not about denying you the right to pain medication developed by pharmaceutical companies. This issue is about denying other people who are looking for alternatives to some of the pharmaceutical drugs and hat has become known as western medicine, the opportunity to work with a Doctor safely to find ways to stay well without medications if they so choose. And yes, I have been in tremendous pain and very sick but the alternative care I have been able to access has helped me tremendously as well as members of my family. This is about choice- something in the USA we are supposed to have, but when these kinds of trade associations have so much power, choice is taken away from the individual to pursue a course towards their own wellness in a safe way with their doctor. Doctors should never feel threatened by suggesting a patient can be helped with alternatives to prescription drugs or other forms of care, especially when there IS science to support the treatment. I am sorry you have so much pain to deal with and hope you can get whatever treatment you need/desire to benefit YOU. I hope in turn you will support my desire to be allowed to get the treatments that I need/desire to benefit me by understanding this issue more clearly as a right to choice, not an elimination of your choices.

ELLE

When you say – often when ANYONE says- “not curable”, what you really mean is “not curable via the limited means allopathic medicine offers”. I have spent a professional LIFETIME successfully helping people heal once they were told by countless MD’s that what they had “was not curable”. Curable means according to their limited model.

So while I am respectful and sympatthetic to anyone’s pain, I have seen many hundreds of time PAIN being resolved once people LEFT medical treatment and received much better and more effective approaches from non medical means- including bodywork, herbal formulations, diet changes, movement programs and energy work under the direction of TRAINED PRACTITIONERS- not somebody swanning about getting things off store shelves.

Furthermore, often a “diagnoses” TRAPS people into doing nothing more for their condition except hopelessly staying on the treadmill of being drugged or surgically tinkered with. This is very sad, and very common- and that said, I urge trained practitioners to continue offering their services, continuing their education, and educating the public about the overwhelmingly positive benefits of non medical health care options.

Susan

Yes, there are those who do need pain killers such as yourself. But this article is more about the freedom of choice, and doctors being able to offer natural complimentary therapies either in conjunction with perscription drugs, or depending on the the degree of pain being allowed to offer the alternatives to drugs. Many people including myself would love to go to a doctor who is both medically capable, as well as, educated in the natual alternatives. As I said before, it’s about doctors being able to give the patient options that include both pharmaceuticals, and/or natural alteratives.

brad roon

And if you were allowed by the Gods of Medicine you could probably be totally cured by Prolozone Therapy. It has totally and permanently cured injured knees, backs, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and more.
I prefer “Alternative Health” healthcare because i like actual health to be an alternative in my body. Every problem in our bodies has a biochemical basis. Every problem needs to be addressed with the NATURAL ingredients that a healthy human being – a product of nature – requires.
Artificial ingredients just don’t work or when they (rarely) do, they are not as effective, and every single pharmaceutical drug has bad side effects.
As a simple example, acetaminophen is linked strongly to increased Alzheimers rates, one WILL develop kidney damage within about 3 weeks of steady usage – and it doesn’t have to be high quantities. The chance of death for people taking Acetaminophen, Advil, and one other nsaid is at least 4 times greater AT LOW DOSES! There is a direct correlation between acetaminophen usage in children and their development of asthma and the incidence and severity of asthma attacks, AND there is a weaker but definite correlation in adults. All this and a 60% increased risk of strokes too.
That is just one stupid drug which most consider safe.

Tess and others, please do not misunderstand our article. Nowhere in the article do we say there are no legitimate uses of pain medication or that nobody ever needs pain medicine. However, independent medical professionals have gone on record saying that the FSMB’s policy, funded by opiate medication makers, encourages overuse of pain medicine for inappropriate conditions, and makes it difficult for state medical boards to take action against unscrupulous “pill mill” doctors. Again, this does not mean that all use is overuse, that all uses are for inappropriate conditions, or that all doctors who prescribe pain pills are pill mill doctors. There is more nuance than that to both the situation and our treatment of it in the article.

Sai

I agree that state medical boards have inflated powers that are not within their abilities to decide or take action. I speak in reference to off-label use of drugs to treat Lyme and associated tick-borne diseases. That the state boards are censoring, suspending licenses and fining worthy, reputable doctors who treat patients so as to bring about cures from these devastating diseases is enough of a reason to demand that these boards have less authority and more over-sight.

I completely disagree with your wild statements about drug use and chronic pain. Commingling data about recreational use of pain drugs and legitimate use of them for chronic intractable pain are two entirely separate situations. And chronic pain sufferers have to suffer more due to hysterical claims such as yours. Drug pill mills and oxycontin docs are the problem. The needs of people with chronic pain are not the problem but we suffer from stupidities such as yours. Because the clear difference between the need for such pain drugs medically is treated the same as the addiction to these drugs from non-medical use, chronic pain patients lack adequate treatment for their pain in many states, and by many doctors.

Now that I read this, I regret the donation I made earlier to your campaign supporting the California ballot initiative to label GMOs. I hope my money only goes to that cause.

brad roon

In Ely Mn, Doctor Joe had a patient who was on pain meds for chronic back pain. Doc looked at his charts a long time and said he had to put the patient on narcotic pain killers. The man objected, and Doctor Joe looked again and voiced the same decision.

The man decided that he needed to think about it, and that night he went home and decided that even though chiropractors had been repeatedly vilified by his doctors throughout the years, that he would try one. If it worked a win. If he lost he had to go on narcotics, which he really didn’t want to do.

He went to a chiropractor in town, a man i considered a middle of the skill chart chiropractor, and the chiropractor looked at the xrays he’d taken. He told the patient that it looked like he’d been in a car accident about 25 years before. The man was shocked! How could the chiropractor know that?

The doc stated that there was a compression of the nerves typical of many car accidents, but that he would help that out. The doc manipulated the back and the patient went home. Slept all the way through the night and went to see Doctor Joe. He told Joe he went to the chiropractor and felt great, in felt he stated that it was literally the first night he’d slept without any pain for 27 years.

Doctor Joe stated that yes, in some cases chiropractic work could help. The now former patient of Doctor Joe screamed at him “You mean you knew that chiropractic could help me and you were going to put me on narcotics? I’m going to get your license!” and he stomped out and wrote letters to the medical board.

No result.

Paxman

Hello all .. I live in New Zealand some 20 years ago I had a mishap that gave me a spinal problem. My first shot was orthodox medicine I was offered the pain clinic that is pain killers of various kinds which would enable me to continue working as the situation became worse or a surgical operation whereby two vertebrae would be fused. I asked around a little and was appalled at what I heard from both the pain killer and the fusion victims.

I went to a local Chiropracter who fixed the the problem in two sessions .. I have never had any problems since. The Chiropracter gave me some dietary advice which I have followed .. God bless him .. I am compassionately sorry for those that have not been given the opportunity or advice to genuinely regain their health.